Bharat Ratna for Vajpayee, Malaviya: A fitting recognition of their service to nation, terms Modi

Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award instituted in 1954, is given in recognition of exceptional service, performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour.


Educationist Madan Mohan Malviya and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee are the 44th and 45th distinguished personalities who have been conferred with country's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna. Early this year, Sachin Tendulkar and C N R Rao were given Bharat Ratna. The others who were conferred with Bharat Ratna are:
1) C Rajagopalachari 1954 
2) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 1954 
3) C V Raman 1954 

4) Bhagwan Das 1955
 5) Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya 1955
 6) Jawaharlal Nehru 1955
 7) Govind Ballabh Pant 1957 
8) Dhondo Keshav Karve 1958
 9) Bidhan Chandra Roy 1961 
10)Purushottam Das Tandon 1961 
11)Rajendra Prasad 1962 
12)Zakir Hussain 1963 
13)Pandurang Vaman Kane 1963 
14)Lal Bahadur Shastri 1966 
15)Indira Gandhi 1971
 16)V V Giri 1975 
17)K Kamaraj 1976
 18)Mother Teresa 1980 
19)Acharya Vinoba Bhave 1983
 20)Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan 1987 
21)M G Ramachandra 1988
 22)B R Ambedkar 1990 
23)Nelson Mandela 1990
 24)Rajiv Gandhi 1991
 25)Vallabhbhai Patel 1991
 26)Morarji Desai 1991 
27)Maulana Abul Kalam Azad 1992 
28)J R D Tata 1992 
29)Satyajit Ray 1992 
30)Gulzarilal Nanda 1997
 31)Aruna Asaf Ali 1997
 32)A P J Abdul Kalam 1997 
33)M S Subbulakshmi 1998 
34)Chidambaram Subramaniam 1998 
35)Jayaprakash Narayan 1999
 36)Amartya Sen 1999
 37)Gopinath Bordoloi 1999 
38)Pandit Ravi Shankar 1999
 39)Lata Mangeshkar 2001
 40)Ustad Bismillah Khan 2001
 41)Bhimsen Joshi 2009 
42)C N R Rao 2014 
43)Sachin Tendulkar 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday expressed delight at the Bharat Ratna being conferred on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the late freedom fighter-educationist Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. "Bharat Ratna being conferred on Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a matter of great delight. Country's highest honour to these illustrious stalwarts is a fitting recognition of their service to the  nation," the prime minister said in a statement.

He also said: "Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya is remembered as a phenomenal scholar and freedom fighter who lit the spark of national consciousness among people. Atal-ji means so much to everyone. A guide inspiration and giant among giants. His contribution to India is invaluable." Modi also posted an image of himself with Vajpayee on his Twitter account. Vajpayee and Malaviya were named for India's highest civilian honour ahead of their birth anniversaries Dec 25. Vajpayee was born in 1924 and Malaviya in 1861. Their birthday has also been declared as "Good Governance Day" by the government.